South Addition, Phase 2, Update 26
The South Addition and South Entrance officially opened on August 26, 2024 and it has been so exciting to see members and families using the new spaces. From Nursery School parents hanging out in the Community Lounge to meetings and adult education classes in the Beit Midrash to B’nei Mitzvah celebrations in the upper lobby and on the terrace, there is so much joy in seeing this project come to fruition. As a reminder, only the South Entrance is open. The East (old main) Entrance is closed.
We also have installed the beautiful mezuzahs made specially for our South Addition. The mezuzah on the South Entrance was made and donated by Reuben Rosenthal of the Gary Rosenthal Collection in memory of his father, Gary Rosenthal. Outside the South Entrance the quotation “Open for Me Gates of Righteousness” is emblazoned on the wall. The mezuzah echoes these words and finishes the quotation: “that I may enter them and praise God” (Psalms 118: 19). Back in February, Rosenthal Studios joined our community to make mezuzahs together to hang on all the other doors of the South Addition. These too are now hung, representing the joining of our community together to build the space we now get to enjoy. Thank you so much to Gary Rosenthal Collections and the Rosenthal-Goldsmith Family for making this possible!
Additionally, the art work commissioned by the Temple Sinai Art Committee has arrived and has been hung in the main lobby. This piece, named Kehillah (Community) by Talia Levitt, is an ode to Jewish heritage and to Temple Sinai itself. Levitt’s large quilt-like painting celebrates our diverse community while depicting important events in our congregation’s history, from our first meeting place at the National Cathedral to our most recent addition, where it occupies a central, welcoming location. The piece invites the viewer to look closely and discover embedded objects identified with our congregation: Temple Sinai’s “big tent” roofline hovers atop the canvas while underneath lie bits of our ark, Torah covers, plantings, flooring, brick walls, Havdalah candles and other glimpses of our synagogue. To learn more about Talia Levitt’s work, visit her website.
Construction continues outside the South Addition as our team works to finish the last few Stormwater Bio-Retention Ponds and complete the walkway from Jocelyn St NW to our South Entrance. Once this work is completed, people who park in that part of the neighborhood will have a ramped way to get to the building. As you can see in the photos below, the walkway starts at the bottom of the driveway on Jocelyn St NW, winds through the plantings and beautiful natural elements, and ends at the sidewalk leading up the South Entrance. We expect this to be the final major piece of construction and for it to be completed in October 2024.
